These cultural memories become stable, reliant on the need for critics to enter productions with preconceived notions of what to expect when critiquing revivals of plays that have, by canonization, received mythic status. Yet the first actors who performed the famous roles written by Tennessee Williams did not have to compete with canonized interpretations. The original performances of Laurette Taylor’s Amanda, Marlon Brando’s Stanley, and Burl Ives’s Big Daddy were acts of creation, rather than re-interpretation. Over time, as these performances have become engrained in cultural memory, new performers are forced (by critics, audiences, and scholars alike) to compete with an assumed stability to these original performances, made mythic by their canonization.
When considering the word canon and the writer Tennessee Williams there are three definitions that emerge. The first is the canon that Williams wrote, which includes …show more content…
For this definition, canon means the works that he wrote, usually invoked to separate different periods of his canon to compare similar trends as Williams’s texts changed over time. The second, and perhaps more helpful definition, of canon would be Williams generally acceptance into the canon of Modern American drama, alongside Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, and Lillian Hellman. In this sense, Williams is one of the few playwrights from the mid-twentieth century chosen for high school English courses, where canonization leads to the importance and general awareness of Williams’s works as they still are remembered significantly in film and television references. The third definition, used less frequently when considering Williams, would be the religious definition of canonization, the process by which the Catholic Church confirms sainthood. As an artist who impacted generations, Williams is viewed by
When considering the word canon and the writer Tennessee Williams there are three definitions that emerge. The first is the canon that Williams wrote, which includes …show more content…
For this definition, canon means the works that he wrote, usually invoked to separate different periods of his canon to compare similar trends as Williams’s texts changed over time. The second, and perhaps more helpful definition, of canon would be Williams generally acceptance into the canon of Modern American drama, alongside Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, and Lillian Hellman. In this sense, Williams is one of the few playwrights from the mid-twentieth century chosen for high school English courses, where canonization leads to the importance and general awareness of Williams’s works as they still are remembered significantly in film and television references. The third definition, used less frequently when considering Williams, would be the religious definition of canonization, the process by which the Catholic Church confirms sainthood. As an artist who impacted generations, Williams is viewed by